Hey theme junkies, I've been on a short hiatus over the last week, but I'm back and in full swing after this past Labour Day. Hope everyone had a great long weekend, and I've got some great themes to show you this week in the roundup. DevCon is coming up in a few short weeks, let's keep fingers crossed that we can see some 9800 themes shortly after! Hit the jump and we'll get down to it.
There are some of us that have a need to add a signature to our email messages, and some (like me) that tend to be too lazy to change the "Sent from my BlackBerry" one set by BIS. Even editing that BIS signature isn't a perfect solution though, as it gets put smack at the bottom of the email you are sending, instead of at the end of your particular reply. SmartSig allows you to make a custom signature, and actually insert it where you normally would if using Outlook. A variety of options are available, with filters determining when the signature will be applied. You can even backup and restore your signatures using Desktop Manager, saving you time and effort when upgrading your OS. Available with support for OS 4.5 and up, including OS 6 in the CB store for $2.99.
Contest: We have 25 copies of SmartSig 2.0 to give away! Just leave a comment on this post to enter. Contest ends this Sunday at Midnight PST. Please only leave one comment, multiple entries won't count.
I got an email the other day, letting me know that aBs JMicro SRL is having a sale on all of their apps. These two games in particular are favorites of mine, staying at the ready in my Games folder for the occasions when I find myself with time to kill.
SuperBlackJack 2.0 is a simple blackjack game, well rendered for a highly polished feel. The graphics are slick and smooth, and the controls are intuitive, allowing for easy pick up and play action. Full rules are included within the application for beginners, and the rules are pretty standard for veterans. Hit, stand, or double down, the only option I miss is the ability to split, but otherwise it's a well thought out, great game. Available on sale in the CB store for $1.99 until Sept 1st, it's regular $6.99 and supports non-touch devices running OS 4.1 and up.
MegaBlockz is an old favorite of mine, with an addictive, simple premise. Your gameboard is full of brightly colored dots, and you have to clear them by breaking them in groups. The remaining dots fall into the space left, and your goal is to leave few, or none, of the dots behind. Larger groups score larger points, and it's easy to keep playing long after you intended to stop. Available in the CB store on sale for $1.99, it's regular $5.99 and supports non-touch devices running 4.1 OS and up.
Deadlines are a way of life nowadays. Whether it's my day job, blogging, or a home project, keeping track of the time I have available makes a world of difference, and can really help motivate me instead of putting it off "one more day". The developer of Neelam has come out with this simple time management app that helps manage those minutes left until that report is due. Acting as a simple extension to the native calendar, the app will allow you to display exactly how long until an event will occur. If you need to remember to do something 20 days from now, instead of pulling out the calendar and counting the days, you can use the app to set the event at a particular interval with no fuss. You can display the time remaining right down to the second, or choose to have it display a much more general "2 days". Even leap years are accounted for, if you are planning that far in advance. Available in the CB store for $1.99 for all devices running 4.5 OS and up.
Contest: We have 50 copies of Rendezvous to give away! Just leave a comment on this post to enter. Contest ends this Sunday at Midnight PST. Please only leave one comment, multiple entries won't count.
Happy Monday theme junkies! This is the last theme roundup for August, it seems like the summer flew by, and school is right around the corner. Theme devs have been hard at work lately, filling up my tip line with tons of great themes, and I have some of the best to show you here today. Hit the jump and take a look at this week's picks.
Once upon a time, IRC was all the rage, allowing users to connect in real time across the world. It evolved into the instant messaging clients we know and love today, but there are still millions of people that communicate via IRC even today. To date, there really hasn't been much in the way of IRC clients for BlackBerry, and I have seen many requests for an app in the forums. I gave Chatmosphere a whirl the other day when it landed in my inbox, and I was pretty impressed with how well it works.
The home screen (seen above) gives you the option to select from various popular topics, search what you're interested in, or just hit up a random chatroom to start connecting. A quick search of "BlackBerry" yielded several results from different countries, and I was connected with a chatroom in France in no time. After spamming them with a few test messages, a quick click in the menu allowed my to change my nickname to one other than what was randomly generated for me. Surfing through several chatrooms was a breeze, and the chat itself was quick and seamless, with no lag on my 9700. The application even supports emoticons and font colors, just like you were sitting at a PC. Clicking someone's nickname opens a prompt where you can choose to private chat in a separate window, or ignore the user. Clicking the BB Key allows you to either go back to the Search page, leaving the chatroom, or to add another chatroom.
Chatrooms are tabbed at the top of the screen, allowing you to participate in multiple chats at the same time, switching with a click. A few shortfalls I noticed while using the application, there is no support for the BlackBerry typing shortcuts (ie: space twice for a period), and the application doesn't remember the nickname you set between sessions, instead randomly generating a handle for you each time. All in all a very good solution for those looking for a way to use IRC from their BlackBerry device, and hopefully future updates will resolve those minor issues.
Available in the CB store on sale for $4.99, it's regular $7.99. The app includes a 14 day trial, so I would suggest giving it a try to see if it's what you need before shelling out the cash. If you're a dedicated IRC user though, you'll likely find yourself considering purchasing the app.
Ever wish you could do more without needing to navigate away from your homescreen to find what you're looking for? Love your wallpaper, but don't want to sacrifice function to rock it proudly? You may want to take a look at this theme, the latest by BerryMobi, which combines a great look with tons of function. For touch devices, the homscreen holds 19 icons on the homescreen, 11 of them user-defined, and includes a hidden today. If you aren't a fan of hidden today themes, you can opt for the non-today version, which amps the number of apps up to 24. Non-touch devices have the same setup, with a few more icons available, namely 19 (13 user-defined) in hidden today version and 23 (17 user-defined) in the non-today versions. The theme includes three fully hideable docks, a weather slot, and is chock full of shortcuts. Fully skinned, and including the OS 6 icon set, its also extremely appealing to the eye. Available in the CB store for multiple devices for $3.99.
Contest: I have 25 copies of BBRedux to give away! Just leave a comment on this post to enter. Contest ends this Sunday at Midnight PST. Please only leave one comment, multiple entries wont count.
From the developers that brought us PatternLock and such games as Word Search and Bubble Burst comes the latest time waster Finger Trap. The game operates on a simple premise, just put your finger on the red square and move it around to avoid the blue ones. You'll figure out pretty quickly though, that it isn't quite so simple playing the game. Fast reflexes and good eye-hand coordination is a must, and you'll easily find yourself wasting time getting lost in the game. With three difficulty settings, and options like randomizing the direction the blocks come from, you'll get plenty of play time on your touch device. Online leaderboards are filtered by difficulty, letting you see how you stack up against other players. Available as a free download from the CB store, it's supported on the 95xx series, and even the 9800.
I refuse to use the native media players on my BlackBerry. They function well, but there are a few reasons I eschew them. One major gripe for me is having to use a different app for each type of media I want to play. I have tried a few different apps over the last while, trying to find a better fit for my needs, and have found Flipside to be a great music alternative, and I'm currently using Good Video Browser for my vids. The problem is the same though, I still need a different app for each type of media. Hypoxia aims to solve that problem, giving me a one-stop shop for all my media needs and putting all of the media on my device within easy reach. No more having to exit out of my music player to look at pics I have taken. The UI is simple and clean, and a fair number of options are available within the app, including the increasingly popular ability to tweet what I'm listening to. One very cool feature is the ability to stream my media to/from my PC (uses a separate server program, available from their website) allowing me to access my entire music and video library right on my device. The developer has also integrated notifications into the app, allowing you to preview incoming emails, SMS, etc without ever having to leave the application, so you can decide if you want to answer that text from your wife or wait until the song is done. The most exciting thing about this app for me is that it is fully skinnable. Those who want to can create their own skins for the app, allowing a huge customization option for those out there who feel the need to make everything unique to themselves. Available in the CB store for $7.99 for multiple devices.
Contest: I have 25 copies of Hypoxia to give away! Just leave a comment on this post to enter. Contest ends this Sunday at Midnight PST. Please only leave one comment, multiple entries wont count.
A couple of weeks ago, I featured Belicious in the weekly Theme Roundup, and Alex from Ahaz tipped me off to another of his themes, Black Out. Both themes are clean and great-looking, chock full of custom work. If you want to read a little more on Belicious, catch my original write up here. Where Belicious is geared toward the female audience, Black Out is one for the boys, featuring a fully skinned "blacked-out" look that's easy on the eyes. I particularly love the message lists, which are fully black with a light focus. The theme includes a full set of custom white icons, which show extremely well against the dark background.Simple and straightforward, the main addition to the homescreen's function is a hideable weather slot that is controlled via hotkeys.Both are available in the CB store for $2.99 each for multiple devices including the Storm, Bold and Curve series.
Contest: We have 30 copies of these themes to give away, the winner gets their pick of which one they want! Just leave a comment on this post to enter. Contest ends this Sunday at Midnight PST. Please only leave one comment, multiple entries wont count.
I use my native calulator application on my BlackBerry on a daily basis with work, calculating wights, and charges for customers. What is provided works very well for me, but there are those, like scientists, enginerrs, or students that require a lot more function than the native calculator provides. A few developers have taken on the task of creating scientific calculators for BB, giving us such apps as the Pocket 10C SE Scientific Calculator or the yoMotion Advanced Calculator, but the offerings currently out there lacksome functions that get covered by this app. None of the apps currently available are able to handle complex numbers, until Neelam. This app doesn't stop there, incorporating many other advanced functions like RPN notation, over 20 embedded physical constants, and many more. If the jargon I just included confuses you, you may not need something quite this powerful for your daily needs, but if you understood it completely, this may very well olve you a lot of frustration in your usage. Having this many functions close to hand saves valuable time and the app is available for $5.99 in the CB store.
Contest: We have 50 copies of Neelam to give away! Just leave a comment on this post to enter. Contest ends this Sunday at Midnight PST. Please only leave one comment, multiple entries won't count.
Internals is a new application for those who feel the need to monitor their device stats, from the same company that brought you AntennaGate. Building on the premise of AntennaGate, they have expanded the idea into a full device monitoring application, covering battery, app memory and storage memory in addition to signal strength. This information can be used as a great diagnostic for your usage, giving you clues aboutwhat apps are eating up your battery life, or taking up app memory. Each "meter" has it's own set of options, allowing you to drill down to specifics by setting different refresh rates or view different information about the function you are monitoring. For example, thebattery display allows you to see a graph of your charge, the battery temperature, or the voltage output. Clicking the "report" function will show you an entry by entry log of the information displayed on the graph in text form. Users looking to beta test applications could find this to be an invaluable tool for sending feedback, enabling them to accurately display their memory and battery usage while testing a new build. I used it over the weekend to do some device optimization, ditching a couple of battery and memory heavy apps that were slowing me down. Available in the CB store for $7.99.
Contest: We have 50 copies of Internals to give away! Just leave a comment on this post to enter. Contest ends this Sunday at Midnight PST. Please only leave one comment, multiple entries won't count.
Back in May, Adam covered a great business expense tracking application, ProOnGo Expense. Recently, the app has been updated with a major feature, enabling users to use their built-in GPS to track their mileage. In the new version, users simply open up a new mileage expense and the app will use the GPS to determine the start and end locations, calculating the mileage automatically. An excellent resource for business users on the go, the app also helps track receipts using the camera to capture the information, and even includes reminders to make sure you get that expense report in on time. There is support for various units of measurement, currencies and more, ensuring that each user can tailor the application to their individual needs. Available in the CB store as a free download for multiple devices running OS 4.5 and up, including OS 6 support.
Kevin dropped word earlier today about the new CrackBerry Wallpaper Changer app from ShaoSoft, and since then I have received word through the grapevine that Bellshare has released a new beta build of their popular application BerryWeather, with compatibility for the new build. Those that have downloaded either the free or paid versions of the new Wallpaper Changer can test out the new BerryWeather build from the OTA links below. Keep in mind that this is a beta build, so you may encounter the odd glitch or bug. You can report anything you find at the Bellshare forums thread here and help them out to make the app even better. Note - while the BerryWeather beta is available for 4.2.1 and 4.6, you need at least OS 4.7 for use of the CB Wallpaper Apps. Special thanks to Yester18 for the tip.
The first thing I'm going to do this week is adress a couple questions I am getting asked constantly. "How do I get my themes in the roundup?", "Where do you find the themes you include?". Simple. The answer to the first question, hit me up at themeroundup@crackberry.com and I'll take a look. The answer to the second? Our theme forums here are a huge resource for theme junkies, and I cruise through them daily looking for the best. That said, hit the jump and I'll show what I've dug up this week.
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